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REVIEW: Uru: Complete Chronicles
(Review copyright 2004, Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com>)
Graphics: excellent
Atmosphere: superb
Plot: not much of it
Writing and dialogue: very good
Gameplay: quite good, although there are problems in some chapters
Puzzles: vary from good to excellent
Difficulty: quite hard
Forgiveness rating: you cannot make a fatal mistake. You can "die", but that
just sends you home, and you can easily return to where you were.
This will be both a short review and a presumptive one. I haven't actually
purchased _Uru: Complete Chronicles_. I *have* purchased the original _Uru_
and its two expansion packs. I've written reviews of those three chapters
already. But I want to ramble a bit about _Uru_ as a collected, complete
experience.
_Uru_ is an unusual game. It was shaped from parts of a planned ongoing
storyline -- an on-line game which never materialized. The reshaping was not
perfect; you can see seams. _Uru_ doesn't have the shape of a traditional,
story-based adventure game. Instead, it's a multifaceted partial exploration
of a world. It's both frustrating and engaging: you can sense a huge
potential world, but you can't reach most of it. The parts you *can* reach
are, literally, fantastic. It breathes. I wish there were more of it.
Maybe there will be.
The three parts that comprise _Uru_ are not really blended together. When
you enter the game, you first pass through an introductory chapter in the
desert. But after that, you have several paths open to you. You can explore
them in nearly any order. They form three main "storylines", although it's
hard to call them stories; but three sets of non-overlapping puzzles, with
three separate resolutions. I'm not sure how it will be to enter them all at
once. I suspect you will focus on one at a time, perhaps switching to
another when you get stuck in one. That can be frustrating, since there's
little chance that progress in one "storyline" will open up new
possibilities in a different one. You could quite easily be stuck in all
three simultaneously. But as long as you remember that they *are* separate
sets of puzzles, it won't be any more frustrating than playing them
sequentially, as I did.
As I said, _Uru_ doesn't exactly have a story. There is background to
discover, but you are not caught up in events, as you were in _Myst_ and
_Riven_. It's hard to say whether the online _Uru Live_ would have felt the
same lack, or if it would have brought out an overarching storyline which
did not survive the cancellation. In any case, playing _Uru: Complete
Chronicles_ is more an immersion-in-setting than it is a narrative.
Individual scenes have plenty of focus -- you're solving puzzles, after all,
and there are excellent puzzles to solve. But the overall game... doesn't
quite go anywhere. Or it goes in three directions, none of them very far. I
don't want to say _Uru_ falls apart; there is an overall sense of coherence.
What it lacks is... drive. Tension and denoument.
It isn't a story.
But it does have all sorts of terrific stuff in it. Since I've written about
all the stuff already, I will simply refer you to my previous reviews:
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
<http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/uru.html>
Uru: To D'ni
<http://www.eblong.com/zarf/uru/rj/uru-todni.html>
Uru: The Path of the Shell
<http://www.eblong.com/zarf/uru/rj/uru-pathofshell.html>,
or see my previous post here.
Overall conclusion: _Uru: Complete Chronicles_ is a fascinating experience,
and well worth playing. It has its flaws, and you shouldn't expect the
deeply-engaged plot which most adventure games have. But _Uru_ has a great
deal of excellent adventuring, and some of the most spectacular interactive
environments the genre has ever seen.
(This review, and my reviews of other adventure games, are at
http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/index.html)
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.
REVIEW: Uru: Complete Chronicles
(Review copyright 2004, Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@eblong.com>)
Graphics: excellent
Atmosphere: superb
Plot: not much of it
Writing and dialogue: very good
Gameplay: quite good, although there are problems in some chapters
Puzzles: vary from good to excellent
Difficulty: quite hard
Forgiveness rating: you cannot make a fatal mistake. You can "die", but that
just sends you home, and you can easily return to where you were.
This will be both a short review and a presumptive one. I haven't actually
purchased _Uru: Complete Chronicles_. I *have* purchased the original _Uru_
and its two expansion packs. I've written reviews of those three chapters
already. But I want to ramble a bit about _Uru_ as a collected, complete
experience.
_Uru_ is an unusual game. It was shaped from parts of a planned ongoing
storyline -- an on-line game which never materialized. The reshaping was not
perfect; you can see seams. _Uru_ doesn't have the shape of a traditional,
story-based adventure game. Instead, it's a multifaceted partial exploration
of a world. It's both frustrating and engaging: you can sense a huge
potential world, but you can't reach most of it. The parts you *can* reach
are, literally, fantastic. It breathes. I wish there were more of it.
Maybe there will be.
The three parts that comprise _Uru_ are not really blended together. When
you enter the game, you first pass through an introductory chapter in the
desert. But after that, you have several paths open to you. You can explore
them in nearly any order. They form three main "storylines", although it's
hard to call them stories; but three sets of non-overlapping puzzles, with
three separate resolutions. I'm not sure how it will be to enter them all at
once. I suspect you will focus on one at a time, perhaps switching to
another when you get stuck in one. That can be frustrating, since there's
little chance that progress in one "storyline" will open up new
possibilities in a different one. You could quite easily be stuck in all
three simultaneously. But as long as you remember that they *are* separate
sets of puzzles, it won't be any more frustrating than playing them
sequentially, as I did.
As I said, _Uru_ doesn't exactly have a story. There is background to
discover, but you are not caught up in events, as you were in _Myst_ and
_Riven_. It's hard to say whether the online _Uru Live_ would have felt the
same lack, or if it would have brought out an overarching storyline which
did not survive the cancellation. In any case, playing _Uru: Complete
Chronicles_ is more an immersion-in-setting than it is a narrative.
Individual scenes have plenty of focus -- you're solving puzzles, after all,
and there are excellent puzzles to solve. But the overall game... doesn't
quite go anywhere. Or it goes in three directions, none of them very far. I
don't want to say _Uru_ falls apart; there is an overall sense of coherence.
What it lacks is... drive. Tension and denoument.
It isn't a story.
But it does have all sorts of terrific stuff in it. Since I've written about
all the stuff already, I will simply refer you to my previous reviews:
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
<http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/uru.html>
Uru: To D'ni
<http://www.eblong.com/zarf/uru/rj/uru-todni.html>
Uru: The Path of the Shell
<http://www.eblong.com/zarf/uru/rj/uru-pathofshell.html>,
or see my previous post here.
Overall conclusion: _Uru: Complete Chronicles_ is a fascinating experience,
and well worth playing. It has its flaws, and you shouldn't expect the
deeply-engaged plot which most adventure games have. But _Uru_ has a great
deal of excellent adventuring, and some of the most spectacular interactive
environments the genre has ever seen.
(This review, and my reviews of other adventure games, are at
http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/index.html)
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.
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